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Updated: Mar 1, 2026

Fabricating Reactive Surfaces with Brush-like and Crosslinked Films of Azlactone-Functionalized Block Co-Polymers

Fabricating Reactive Surfaces with Brush-like and Crosslinked Films of Azlactone-Functionalized Block Co-Polymers

Published on: June 30, 2018

Engineering live cell surfaces with functional polymers via cytocompatible controlled radical polymerization.

Jia Niu^1,2, David J Lunn^2,3, Anusha Pusuluri⁴

¹California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.

Nature Chemistry

|May 25, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a new method to attach synthetic polymers to live cells, improving control over cell behavior. This cell surface engineering technique enhances polymer grafting efficiency for potential therapeutic applications.

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Area of Science:

Biomaterials Science
Polymer Chemistry
Cell Biology

Background:

Grafting synthetic polymers onto live cells can control cellular phenotype and processes.
Existing grafting-to methods suffer from low polymer grafting efficiency.
A need exists for improved methods for cell surface functionalization.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop an efficient strategy for engineering live cell surfaces with synthetic polymers.
To investigate a cell surface-initiated controlled radical polymerization approach.
To compare the new method with conventional grafting-to techniques.

Main Methods:

Developed cytocompatible photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization (PET-RAFT).
Initiated polymer chain growth directly from chain-transfer agents anchored to yeast and mammalian cell surfaces.
Utilized both covalent attachment and non-covalent insertion for anchoring chain-transfer agents.

Main Results:

Achieved narrow polydispersity synthetic polymers (Mw/Mn < 1.3) at room temperature within 5 minutes.
Demonstrated high cell viability during the surface-initiated polymerization process.
Significantly improved polymer grafting efficiency compared to conventional grafting-to methods.

Conclusions:

The novel grafting-from strategy enables efficient and controlled synthetic polymer grafting onto live cells.
This approach maintains high cell viability and allows for active manipulation of cellular phenotypes.
The developed PET-RAFT polymerization offers a powerful tool for advanced cell surface engineering.